#I'd totally read that

[marivanilla05]

My favorite scenes from The Odyssey (books 18 to 21)

Odysseus fighting a random beggar being its own book was not something I expected to enjoy this much when reading The Odyssey, but here we are.

[the-rolling-libero]

Were you a strange child oddly obsessed with the deaths of the martyrs? Does making fun of the Catholic Church spark joy? Here's a little zine you might enjoy! "Patron Saint, Patron Sin," is a one page zine that considers which sins would befit the attention of 6 selected saints, with an illustration to match!

You can order a physical version, access the digital & printable versions on a pay-what-you-want basis, or just read the whole thing below!

[maeo-png]

Of course it's fucking THESEUS

okay. i havent shut up about the greek myth aspects of Simon's story and i wont stop now. At first it was a statue of Persephone in the garden, with it's head replaced to be Betty, giving the implication that Betty is the Persephone to Simon's Hades, and it was Simon's status as an antiquarian. and now we've gotten Simon being a huge nerd and bringing up Theseus completely unprompted (so real)

a bit of context in case you need it, Theseus was one of those greek "legendary Heroes" (Achilles, Heracles, etc.), and previously King of Athens, but had managed to dodge most bad things that happen to Greek heroes. he was just stupid and i guess they took pity on him.

The Ship of Theseus or "Theseus' Paradox", which I'd imagine all of tumblr knows by now, but if you don't, is the question on whether if a ship, specifically Theseus', is still the same ship after having all of its parts replaced exactly. To me this makes for such an obvious connection to Simon. Simon's story factors around identity, first and foremost. (yknow. "I Remember You" and all that?) The concept of not knowing what you are fundamentally was originally Ice King's thing, as his previous life as Simon was essentially history. But now that's being brought to Simon. and Simon has the lucidity to process what that means for him.

[helenstudies]

I love being multilingual. I love reading books so much. and I know most of langblr and bookblr is about academia or classics but my heart is in children's literature. I grew up with my own language and my own country's literature. I get to have my childhood favorite books in my language. and then as I grow up and learn others I get to enjoy other people's childhood favorite books. sometimes I've progressed enough in my language to enjoy those foreign books in their own original language and be filled with joy as I realize how this would have shaped a generation of people. I get to go "what is this word" and look up and have a spark of joy as I memorize a BIG word in a new language. I get to gasp at reveals and twists and turns and fairy tales and romances and horrors of all your children's literature because my language level is still progressing and every new word fills me with wonder. I get to have my childhood and I get to have other people's childhood through my childlike language abilities. I love it. I love reading books!

[liesmyth]

Is it better if John erased their memories, or if they came back that way and he just decided not to fix them?

It's immensely better if he intentionally mindwiped them. TO ME.

I'm a John fan. I think he's a tremendous tragic antagonist, and that everything he does in the HtN backstory is relatable if not painful familiar. He was under immense pressure, trying to mitigate the literal end of the world, having his mind and his whole self changed in ways he had no frame of reference to understand. He went from being desperate and trying to do his best to being carried away by circumstances to going absolutely fucking insane. There are many ways to rationalise John's actions all the way to the end, which is what makes it such an effective corruption arc. If you want to engage in some blorbo apologism, there are plenty of excuses to be found.

There's absolutely no fucking way to excuse mind-wiping his friends. THAT is why it's so important to me that he did it deliberately, in cold blood, justifying it to himself as a way to take their burdens upon himself so they wouldn't have to feel guilty. He removed their agency. He didn't want any peers in the world he'd created. He could have acknowledged what had happened, for better or worse, and tried to make amends - but instead, he chose to remove their knowledge that something had even happened in the first place. It's the turning point! I need him to go into that with his eyes fully open. He's doing it on purpose! He weighed the pros and cons and prioritised his comfort over his friends' identities.

EYE believe that his story arc is infinitely more powerful if there's a point we can look at and say "here is when John's story went from things happening TO HIM to John doing terrible things". Especially in a backstory that's ultimately about divine corruption and losing touch with your humanity, I think that turning point needs to be something that has a personal value to him, something that can't be chalked up to "he was high on death" or "humanity was doomed" or even "he touched the soul of the earth and went insane."

I think it's important, thematically, that one of his first actions after acquiring godlike powers was to make sure that no one would be able to remember his human self and challenge him on equal footing, even if he's still internally lamenting his own loneliness and wishing things were different.

Obviously, this is all coming from a known John Girlie™ and Eldritch Alecto Enjoyer — I interpret John's ascension to quasi-divinity as something that was mostly imposed ON him and he couldn't control, which is why I need him to cross the moral event horizon outright with the mind violation of his inner circle. Someone who views John as more directly culpable in the end of the earth might feel less strongly about the importance of the mindwipe in his story arc than I do, but TO ME it's the culmination of the tragedy. You've become the inhuman horror, baby.

/post that inspired the question

[bookwyrminspiration]

oh captive prince?? what are your thoughts on it, because i’m hesitant to read it because the reviews are pretty polar from what i’ve seen

I think you'll have to check back in once I've finished the series. I've finished book 1, and it's very much set-up for the rest of the trilogy. Establishing important people, important relationships and conflicts, etc.

So at this point it could go either way. I'll have to see how it plays out. Book 1 itself was fine, but you can just tell it's primary purpose is to lead into something more; evaluating it now feels disingenuous, like i'm missing a huge part of the picture

i shall keep you all updated and give thorough thoughts :)

[poekiidokidoki]

I've been reading this page about TKK, and bro- THE STORYBOARD ART FOR THE MOVIE IS SO JSDANJFAJKFN I want it. LOOK AT IT !!!!!

[vesna-v-irkutske]

How is this nigga studying law behind bars?? 😭🤦🤦my guy ain’t finna represent no one LMAO /j but also /srs

SAME QUESTION. Very "I'm bored as hell and I don't wanna work like the rest 😠" of him. And at the University of Latvia. Wow, okay, fancy pants "rich" McGee over here. 🙄 Serious answer & context. Anoufriev in a report to NTV's infoshow "Правда Гурнова" (True Gurnov) (released on February 10th, 2017): "I'm studying, uuuh, law at the University of Latvia. Well, that's the most important, what else right now. Need to find something to do, man, not getting into a noose... after all." Why? Because apparently, after 25 years, he can hope for parole (and in 2014, he said that his family was taking various measures to get him released on parole, but he wasn't counting on it (but maybe he became more hopeful)).

But there's another interview. In 2017, the crew of the TV program "Честный детектив" (Honest detective) also interviewed Artyom. I'll translate it one day, because it's SO BAD. LITERALLY the most SHAMELESS gaslight, gatekeep, mansplain, manipulate. It's not even funny, it's kinda scary. But I respect the grind. 🔥 I wonder if he really thinks that someone will believe what he's saying, or is he just trolling people with a straight face? He wasn't very fond of journalists in 2014, and he said he would only talk to members of the press if he was paid for it. Maybe it was him being a bitch and saying crap on purpose again, just not giving them the information they came for. Don't know what's worse: this or the possibility of him ACTUALLY trying to gaslight and convince everyone (and maybe himself too) that it was all a mistake. Imagine saying the dumbest and craziest shit with the most unflappable face and in the flattest tone. You're either very mentally ill or a very good actor. UPD. In another interview, he says something completely different about where he studies. He's taking a correspondence course at a branch of some philological university. So yeah, the law school was bullshit (yeah, the law school for a lifelong convicted murderer and (allegedly) former Neo-Nazi, SUUUURE), this is at least believable. But still take everything he says with a grain of salt.

[heyimkana]

this yandere jinwoo fic i'm writing is becoming more and more problematic omg maybe i should just erase it from existence

[twilight-deviant]

How DDBA 1x09 starts even if it doesn't:

[Man Without Fear (2019) #4]

[crmediagal]

I finished A Court of Frost and Starlight last night...and I have a lot of feelings. Putting them under the cuff and just gonna generalize the biggest peeves I had below...

Can the Inner Circle be anymore insufferable? They probably can…but they really gave me the ick in this book, even more than the others up to this point.

Feyre talking about how many Illyrians died in the Battle of Hybern or how many families in Velaris are displaced and homeless after the war…but then she keeps flexing about the endless supply of money she and Rhysand have. And doesn't even think about giving any of it away to those in need? Oh, and she's gifted another house at the end of the book?! The utter lack of self-awareness is gob-smacking and just makes her and Rhysand all the more unlikable.

My biggest pet peeve of all in this book: Feyre treating Lucien like actual garbage and Rhysand saying he "can't forgive him [Lucien]" for what he did to her UTM. I'm sorry, what kind of gaslighting is this?! Lucien?! Lucien did nothing but try to HELP Feyre every step of the way UTM and was even willing to let Rhysand turn his mind to soup rather than give up her name, and that's when she was still human! The gaslighting by the characters and author in these books over other characters' actions continues to drive me insane. Where did that assassination of Lucien's character even come from?!

Oh, and we can't forget Rhysand visiting Tamlin twice, who is CLEARLY deeply, horribly depressed - he's unkempt, not eating, barely communicates, and even asks for forgiveness at the end - and Rhysand just keeps verbally kicking the guy again and again. It was so unsettling and uncomfortable for me to read someone verbally abusing someone suffering this badly. If I had any more reasons to dislike the fandom's favorite High Lord, there it was. He's grotesque towards others' pains and faults but can't look in a mirror. Ever.

There really wasn't much to like about this book, and it's a shame because the after-war reprieve could have been a lovely, cozy read. It was interesting getting other characters' POVs, too…but they all are so infuriating and self-righteous that it made the experience very un-enjoyable for me.

I'm basically hanging on to this fandom for Lucien's and Elain's POVs…and praying that their storylines are upheld, not gaslighted, or sh*t all over.

[lovewilltellamillionstories]

Real talk, I hope Nic and Luke are ok.. only just saw how much Netflix and Bridgerton socials are being flooded with complaints. Yes I have my opinions, but they did incredibly with what they were given.

[uhbasicallyjustmilex]

quotes from alex turner's favourite authors that make me want to put my face through a wall:

"although i have never been an actor in the strict sense of the word, i have nevertheless, in real life, always carried about with me a small folding theatre" - vladimir nabokov, despair

"there is a terrible emptiness in me, an indifference that hurts," - albert camus

"there is no trap so deadly as the trap you set for yourself" - raymond chandler

"at eight, he had once told his mother that he wanted to paint air" - vladimir nabokov

"no man ever understands quite his own artful dodges to escape from the grim shadow of self-knowledge" - joseph conrad

"everything i've ever let go of has claw marks on it" - david foster wallace

"we're all lonely for something we don't know we're lonely for. how else to explain the curious feeling that goes around feeling like missing somebody we've never even met?" - david foster wallace

"i turn over a new leaf every day, but the blots show through" - keith waterhouse

"the truth will set you free. but not until it's finished with you" - david foster wallace

"curiosity is insubordination in its purest form" - vladimir nabokov

"i'm me and nobody else; and whatever people think i am or say i am, that's what i'm not, because they don't know a bloody thing about me" - alan sillitoe

"we live as we dream; alone” - joseph conrad

"i liked, as i like still, to make words look self-conscious and foolish, to bind them by mock marriage of a pun, to turn them inside out, to come upon them unwares" - vladimir nabokov, despair

"whatever you get paid attention to for is never what you think is most important about yourself" - david foster wallace

"i continued to stir my tea long after it had done all it could with the milk” - vladimir nabokov, despair

"i remained too much inside my head and ended up losing my mind" - edgar allan poe

"all the information i have about myself is from forged documents" - vladimir nabokov, despair

"how odd i can have all this inside me and to you its just words" - david foster wallace

"you will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. you will never live if you're looking for the meaning of life" - albert camus

[pharawee]

"You are the only Enigma left in our home. Don't let Daddy down."

[artsysurvivor]

It's soo telling that Halt (a prince-become-ranger who will die if he's alone for 2 minutes) saw Will having a hard time with the death of Alyss and Maddie being a little snotty/bratty and immediately thought "you know what would work?

Ranger training"

[sunatsubu]

y'all are KILLING me with so many amazing mermay hankcon AUs, now all I wanna do is draw fanart for them instead of working on my own thing for mermay. Hope you don't mind these rough sketches inspired by your awesome AUs @glass-noodle, @maddsmallow!! inspired by glass-noodle's merman connor, janitor hank AU

inspired by maddsmallow's android mer connor and organic mer hank AU